{"id":13,"date":"2020-02-05T07:36:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T14:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/painvalley.com\/?p=13"},"modified":"2020-03-04T20:54:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T03:54:45","slug":"insomnia-and-chronic-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/?p=13","title":{"rendered":"Insomnia and Chronic Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oc\u00e9ane\"<\/a>\"Creative<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

\n

I have been an insomniac, literally, since the day I was born.\u00a0 As a baby, I think my parents thought they were going to go insane from lack of sleep because I simply never slept. As a child and later in my teens, my sleeping got worse, to the point of keeping my parents up most nights.\u00a0 By the time I was old enough to buy over the counter medication and vitamins I was taking Melatonin, Nyquil and Tylenol PM on a regular basis until my early 20s when a doctor finally put me on sleeping pills, which did absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fast-forward ten years and add chronic pain to the mix and my sleeping habits have not gotten any better.\u00a0 The numbers are staggering when it comes to insomnia in healthy individuals, with 30-40% of Americans dealing with one or more sleepless nights per month (that\u2019s nothing!).\u00a0 The number increases greatly among people living with chronic pain (approximately 65%).<\/p>\n

When speaking about insomnia in regards to chronic pain (usually called \u201csecondary insomnia\u201d), there are numerous reasons as to why people may have difficulty sleeping, such as:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pain<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stiffness of joints that increases at night<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Inability to get comfortable in a sleeping position due to pain, injury, etc.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Medication side effects (that\u2019s a biggie!)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anxiety<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disrupted sleep cycles, such as sleeping during the day due to fatigue from, you guessed it, not sleeping at night.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Muscle cramping, twitching, restless leg syndrome and like conditions<\/p>\n

Insomnia can be dangerous and can even be fatal if it is serious and prolonged.\u00a0 The ill-effects of insomnia can be seen after one night of less than seven hours of sleep (that is so rare for me, that would be considered an amazing night\u2019s sleep).\u00a0 The effects of insomnia on the mind and body include:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Diminished speech control and memory capacity<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Irritability<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An increase in cortisol, the hormone responsible for depression and stress<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Decreased concentration<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aching muscles<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Increased danger of car accident due to sleepiness<\/p>\n

Chronic insomnia is difficult to treat because most of us suffering from chronic secondary insomnia become our own worst enemies.\u00a0 We develop poor sleeping habits, such as napping during the day, overcompensating for poor nights of sleep by staying in bed longer in the morning and \u201cdozing,\u201d overmedicating ourselves, etc.\u00a0 I know I will sometimes look at the clock and immediately think, \u201cOh, good, not tired, it\u2019s an insomnia night, let me start writing.\u201d\u00a0 Five hours later it\u2019s 3am and I am still awake, watching \u201cHouse\u201d reruns, in pain and unable to switch off, whereas had I given myself twenty minutes to wind down and try to sleep when I got into bed, I may not be up all night.\u00a0 Part of my problem is sometimes, when the pain is bad, I can be so unproductive<\/i> during the day, that I use that nighttime boost to get things done.<\/p>\n

However, re-training and using proper \u201csleep hygiene\u201d to retrain ourselves to sleep properly is the most important and effective tool in getting back to healthy sleeping habits.\u00a0 It is also important to keep regular sleep schedules, avoid eating heavy meals and caffeine before bedtime, and avoid overstimulation before bed (such as writing these posts at 10pm\u2026those who can, so, those who can\u2019t, teach\u2026).<\/p>\n

How do you handle your pain-related insomnia?<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/mag.newsweek.com\/2009\/08\/23\/the-waking-dead.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.spine-health.com\/wellness\/sleep\/chronic-pain-and-insomnia-breaking-cycle<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of\u00a0r e n a t a<\/a> via Compfight<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been an insomniac, literally, since the day I was born.\u00a0 As a baby, I think my parents thought they were going to go insane from lack of sleep because I simply never slept. As a child and later in my teens, my sleeping got worse, to the point of keeping my parents up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pain-care","tag-dbtag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}